Brockton fatal crash site known as dangerous stretch of road

Thursday

Mar 13, 2014 at 6:00 AM

Brockton Ward 4 City Councilor Paul Studenski said the intersection of Summer and East streets has been plagued by accidents over the years.

Staff Reporter

BROCKTON – Ward 4 City Councilor Paul Studenski knows the intersection of Summer and East streets all too well.The area, which is in Studenski’s ward, has been plagued by accidents over the years, the most recent of which took place early Tuesday morning and took the life of Ruben Andrade, a 28-year-old Brockton resident.

“It’s too bad,” Studenski said. “I, like anybody else, get frustrated when you lose young lives needlessly. What a shame.”

Andrade’s father, Avelino Andrade, said he thought his son was driving home from a friend’s house when his car crossed into the other lane and crashed into a tree on the opposite side of the road near the intersection.

Marie Ward, 69, of 306 Summer St., said it was the third time that someone had struck the 20-foot-tall tree, which is in her front lawn.

Studenski said that speed is often a factor in the crashes that take place near the intersection, and as recently as last week, he had requested increased traffic enforcement in the area.

A request to have a guard rail installed on the northeast side of East Street was also made by Studenski and approved by the city’s Traffic Commission; however, it has not yet been purchased.

The Massachusetts State Police accident reconstruction team is investigating the cause of the crash.

The team was also looking into the cause of a fatal crash in Middleboro that also took place on Tuesday.

Both drivers, a 64-year-old Middleboro man and a 30-year-old woman from Iowa, died in the head-on collision, which took place on Route 44.

A dog, which was in the Iowa woman’s car, was unharmed during the crash. It is now under the care of the town’s animal control.